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Controversy brewing over new city branding

After months of researching and work, the City of Colorado Springs has a new identity.

The new tag line "Live It Up", is the culmination of research done by the Convention and Visitors Bureau along with the Community Branding Task Force and Brand Consultants Stone Mantel. Stone Mantel founder Dave Norton says the idea is to highlight the best of our area to bring in visitors, young professionals and business. "We want to grow. We want to be successful. We want our businesses to be successful." he explains.

But with that new brand came a price tag of about $111,000. $80,000 comes from the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau budget, and $31,000 in private sector money from the CVB, El Paso County and the Economic Development Corporation. The majority of that money comes from the Lodging and Auto Rental, or LART tax, most of which is generated by folks visiting the city when they book hotels or rent cars. A percentage of that goes to entities such as the Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We're not taking any money out of the city budget. We're not taking any money taken from the citizens in terms of their taxes." explains Amy Long from the CVB.

We decided to show the new branding to people on the street. We showed people downtown the new branding logos and a new video produced for the branding which features people around the city. Most feedback was positive. "From what I saw I think it did. It really expressed the outdoors and showed that real well." explains Colorado Springs resident Matthew Mast, "It showed a lot of things you can do. For me it did look like it encompasses a lot of things." Springs resident Daniel Naylor agrees, "I like that video. What struck me was that it was very authentic."

But not everyone feels that way. Today a new Facebook page called "Rebrand the Springs" was founded by lifetime Springs Resident and Colorado College grad, Marcus Haggard. He owns a local marketing firm, but says his firm has no interest in designing a logo for the city. In a matter of hours his Facebook page, which isn't in favor of the new logos had about 200 followers. Haggard is in favor of putting out a call to local designers to design a better logo. "The branding is probably good and we support what the convention and visitor's bureau is trying to do. " he says, "We want to make sure they're successful. We want to get on board with what they're doing. But it's really hard to get on board with something that you're not proud of."

Dave Norton says he doesn't expect everyone to love the design. He just wants the public to give it some time. "We know that there's going to be a lot of people that are going to look and say, 3 words? I could have come up with 3 words. But there's a whole bunch that's going on behind those 3 words and will be going on the future that's going to make it very successful."